Nikon D4 footage-University of music and preforming arts, Vienna. Image video project. Part 1

http://vimeo.com/39035275

For the last 3 weeks I've been producing/directing/filming an image video for one of the finest universities in the world. The university of music and preforming arts situated in Vienna, Austria (mdw.ac.at/?pageid=1)

When writing the concept to the image video together with my co-director Tobias federsel, we decided to put the teachers and students at the heart of the film. There is nothing like convincing statements from dedicated teachers and satisfied students to pass the unique massage this university brings. 

As a second layer to illustrate how unique this university is, me and my crew joined some of the unique "one on one lessons" the university is offering its students.

Last but not least, Vienna is famous and reworded for its cultural tradition. It was clear to us that the city must come out in a way to fully support our "dynamic tradition" concept.


It is not easy sharing "work in progress" footage, but since the tools I chose for the job might be in some interest for the community I've decided to do so.

Camera choice decision: 
There are lots of fine filming tools out there, but I chose to use the change in the VDSLR generation as an opportunity to explore and learn more about the up coming new tools.

Nikon was the first to support my wish with a D4 pre production model. For the last 3 weeks I've been running with this camera and learned to like what comes out of it. (Canon 5d mark III footage and Nikon D800 might follow)... 

The D4 pre production model I had could not record to an external device like the ninja. Also, there was something kind of wrong with the picture I got in full frame mode. It was too soft and the overall quality was not satisfying. In a way I was now forced to work in 2.7 crop mode, the one Nikon recommends most for best results. 
Stay tune to learn more in the next part if this problem was fixed in the production model.

The first part is dedicated to some footage I took during interviews. Mind you, non of the footage is graded. 
A decision Tobias and me took was that when ever it's possible to use a wide angle shot during an interview we will do so. 
Challenging as it is since we all know how "normal" classes looks like, I am happy with our decision. In the overall product it will connect us better to what the university has to offer, a feeling I could not express in "tight shots".

Audio:
Audio is recorded separately. Only a guide track audio is wirelessly fed into the camera. 
Note: now that I have the production model with me, I'm investigating if the recorded audio is noisy as the pre production model was. 

Light:
Most interviews were done with Litepanels 1x1 LED light (litepanels.com/language/pages/onebyone_standard.php) and Viso kinoflow type light (visiolight.com/pro_flu_p.html)
Additional lights: Arri tungstan 300-650w 

Additional equipment list for the shown footage:

Sachtler system 18 S1 ENG 2 CF tripod
Vocas base plate
Cineroid Metal HDSDI EVF
TVlogig VFM 056W 5.6 monitor
Kata FlyBY 76

Many thanks to my dedicated crew:
Co director-Tobias Federsal
Sound man-Franz Moritz
Gaffer- Ewald Grabenbauer
Camera assistant- Claudia Würtl

24h in 25p-night Shot with Nikon D4

http://vimeo.com/35858905

UPDATE: 

I am now working again with the Nikon D4 on a long project. 
Many people including me were very concerned about the "picture softens".
My conclusion is, that all but the 2.7 crop factor are causing the picture to be very soft.
As far as I am concern non of the other full frame/crop modes is delivering a picture which is usable for broadcast. The 2.7 crop on the other hand is sharp and producing a very nice picture.

Nikon D4 (pre production model), first impression by Johnnie Behiri

I was lucky enough having the Nikon D4 (pre production model) for 24 hours. My original plan was to shoot a short feature with it and by doing so, check its strength and weaknesses, but the short notice confirming having the camera left me no choice but run a very “simple test” one that might not satisfy all….
I’ve divided the test to “night and day shots”. Both videos are NOT color corrected. I wanted to share with the community what I got out of the camera. (CC versions might follow). 
For my eyes, up to ISO 1000 the camera produces clean video images. 
Also, please take a look at “24h in25p”-night, 0:49min. 
Surprise, the “rolling shutter” effect is almost a thing of the past!

Obviously having the camera for such a short time did not allow me to master it. I truly hope some of the short comings I discovered are due to my lack of “Nikon experience”. Hopefully those are not “short comings” after all…. 

My decision was to shoot with 2 prime lenses. The reason was to see how useful and functional the “crop” function is. So everything you see (but the Capoeira shots) was done with the Nikon 20mm+85mm lenses.

What to like about this camera?

I liked what I saw, though hoped I could get a bit more sharper image. I would love to experiment more and get even better results if possible. 
-Audio quality: It is very nice. I dare to say that the D4 is producing a cleaner sound then my Tascam DR-100.
-Needless to say that the headphone socket is a real treat…
-“Crop factor”: I can’t say enough good things about this function. Simply put, AMAZING! By the way, Nikon representative told me that the best video quality produced by that camera is on the 2.7 crop factor so this setting is a default. You are able to toggle between “full screen” and “1.5 crop factor” as a second option. 


Things I would love Nikon to review and hopefully change in a firmware update if possible:

-It is unfortunate but sound levels can not be adjusted after starting recording.
-When switching the camera on in video mode, there is ALWAYS a need to press the LV button BEFORE being able to actually shoot video. 
-Clear HDMI output is great but when an external EVF is connected, there is a need to see some information there. I couldn’t find a way to “overlay” the info in my Cineroid EVF for comfortable shooting.
-Also, when shooting with an External EVF connected to the camera via HDMI, I could not find a way to turn the camera LCD off. At times I am not interested that others will see what I’m shooting or just would like to save a bit more of the battery life. 
-In some occasions, there is a delay after pressing the record button between the LCD screen and the external EVF. The EVF will go blank for a second or 2 before you see what you are recording.
-There is a way to assign 2 front buttons for a smooth aperture control. This is a nice feature. The problem is that the changes are so quick that I ended up pressing the button in steps so the end result is like using a “clicked” aperture ring on a manual lens. Welcome feature, wish it had a “slower response”. 
Crop factor changes: As amazing this feature is, there is no way to operate it “on the fly”. There is always a need to fiddle within the menu in order to access and change the settings. This feature should definitely be accessed easily. 
-WB settings: There is no way to see the WB settings on the LCD screen only down at the battery pack compartment window. 


Other nots:
-My Cineroid EVF showed 1080i signal before hitting the record button and 720p right after pressing it. So I guess clean 720p signal can be output to an external device if you are interested in recording HD ready resolution while simultaneously filming into a memory card…..
- All footage was shot in natural picture profile setting in1080/25p

Equipment used: 
Nikon D4 pre production model firmware 1.0
Lenses- Nikkor 2omm f/2.8, 85mm f1.8, 14-24mm, 70-200mm
Rig-O’Connor (All but the Vocas handle)
EVF-Cineroid 
Tripod-Sachtler DV8 SB
Camera bag- Kata DR-465i and FlyBy 76
Light craft Fader ND 

A special thanks to my trainee assistant Claudia for doing at most for helping during this long day! 
Also, a big thank you to professor David and his team for preforming a short Capoeira theme for us. More about their school: suldabahia.at/

24h in 25p-day Shot with Nikon D4

http://vimeo.com/35858338

UPDATE: 

I am now working again with the Nikon D4 on a long project. 
Many people including me were very concerned about the "picture softens".
My conclusion is, that all but the 2.7 crop factor are causing the picture to be very soft.
As far as I am concern non of the other full frame/crop modes is delivering a picture which is usable for broadcast. The 2.7 crop on the other hand is sharp and producing a very nice picture.

Nikon D4 (pre production model), first impression by Johnnie Behiri

I was lucky enough having the Nikon D4 (pre production model) for 24 hours. My original plan was to shoot a short feature with it and by doing so, check its strength and weaknesses, but the short notice confirming having the camera left me no choice but run a very “simple test” one that might not satisfy all….
I’ve divided the test to “night and day shots”. Both videos are NOT color corrected. I wanted to share with the community what I got out of the camera. (CC versions might follow). 
For my eyes, up to ISO 1000 the camera produces clean video images. 
Also, please take a look at “24h in25p”-night, 0:49min. 
Surprise, the “rolling shutter” effect is almost a thing of the past!

Obviously having the camera for such a short time did not allow me to master it. I truly hope some of the short comings I discovered are due to my lack of “Nikon experience”. Hopefully those are not “short comings” after all…. 

My decision was to shoot with 2 prime lenses. The reason was to see how useful and functional the “crop” function is. So everything you see (but the Capoeira shots) was done with the Nikon 20mm+85mm lenses.

What to like about this camera?

I liked what I saw, though hoped I could get a bit more sharper image. I would love to experiment more and get even better results if possible. 
-Audio quality: It is very nice. I dare to say that the D4 is producing a cleaner sound then my Tascam DR-100.
-Needless to say that the headphone socket is a real treat…
-“Crop factor”: I can’t say enough good things about this function. Simply put, AMAZING! By the way, Nikon representative told me that the best video quality produced by that camera is on the 2.7 crop factor so this setting is a default. You are able to toggle between “full screen” and “1.5 crop factor” as a second option. 


Things I would love Nikon to review and hopefully change in a firmware update if possible:

-It is unfortunate but sound levels can not be adjusted after starting recording.
-When switching the camera on in video mode, there is ALWAYS a need to press the LV button BEFORE being able to actually shoot video. 
-Clear HDMI output is great but when an external EVF is connected, there is a need to see some information there. I couldn’t find a way to “overlay” the info in my Cineroid EVF for comfortable shooting.
-Also, when shooting with an External EVF connected to the camera via HDMI, I could not find a way to turn the camera LCD off. At times I am not interested that others will see what I’m shooting or just would like to save a bit more of the battery life. 
-In some occasions, there is a delay after pressing the record button between the LCD screen and the external EVF. The EVF will go blank for a second or 2 before you see what you are recording.
-There is a way to assign 2 front buttons for a smooth aperture control. This is a nice feature. The problem is that the changes are so quick that I ended up pressing the button in steps so the end result is like using a “clicked” aperture ring on a manual lens. Welcome feature, wish it had a “slower response”. 
Crop factor changes: As amazing this feature is, there is no way to operate it “on the fly”. There is always a need to fiddle within the menu in order to access and change the settings. This feature should definitely be accessed easily. 
-WB settings: There is no way to see the WB settings on the LCD screen only down at the battery pack compartment window. 


Other nots:
-My Cineroid EVF showed 1080i signal before hitting the record button and 720p right after pressing it. So I guess clean 720p signal can be output to an external device if you are interested in recording HD ready resolution while simultaneously filming into a memory card…..
- All footage was shot in natural picture profile setting in1080/25p

Equipment used: 
Nikon D4 pre production model firmware 1.0
Lenses- Nikkor 2omm f/2.8, 85mm f1.8, 14-24mm, 70-200mm
Rig-O’Connor (All but the Vocas handle)
EVF-Cineroid 
Tripod-Sachtler DV8 SB
Camera bag- Kata DR-465i and FlyBy 76
Light craft Fader ND 

A special thanks to my trainee assistant Claudia for doing at most for helping during this long day! 
Also, a big thank you to professor David and his team for preforming a short Capoeira theme for us. More about their school: suldabahia.at/

Austria Czech Nuclear-Ghostly dinosaur

http://vimeo.com/34099827

Shot with Canon 7d. Picture profile-"Cinema" by http://www.cineplus.ch/cinema.html 

Austria, which has long been anti-nuclear, has called for the continent to abandon nuclear power altogether, but its neighbour, the Czech Republic, is pushing ahead with plans to increase dramatically its production of atomic energy.

The nuclear age ended in Austria before it had begun. Just outside Vienna is the atomic power plant at Zwentendorf on the Danube.

In the late 1970s, it was ready to go into operation. All that was needed was the installation of the fuel rods and the push of a button.

Correspondent: Bethany Bell